Daevid, born Christopher David Allen, finished his struggle with cancer on Friday the 13th last moonth. Well, it seems he finished a few weeks prior. This was his last message via the Planetgong home page in early February:

Hello you Kookaburras,
OK so I have had my PET-CAT scans (which is essentially a full body viewing gallery for cancer specialists) and so it is now confirmed that the invading cancer has returned to successfully establish dominant residency in my neck. The original surgery took much of it out, but the cancer has now recreated itself with renewed vigor while also spreading to my lung.

I love you and will be with you always - Daevid xxx -"

A lot can be said about Daevid's musical, poetical, political, philosophical etc., etc., etc. life in Australia, France, England, Spain, New York and back to Australia. Also of his bands The Daevid Allen Trio, Mr. Head that soon evolved into Soft Machine, Gong, Planet Gong, New York Gong and several other Gong variations, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, Brainville and Brainville 3, EX- (not the Dutch The Ex), Magick Brothers and University Of Errors to name the most obvious. There's also Daevid Allen the solo artist and his collaborations and experimentations, both musical and non-musical, with William Burroughs, Terry Riley, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Don Cherry, Steve Hillage, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell, Mark Kramer, Hugh Hopper ... the list could go on and on and on.

Gong always started their tours as the full moon was rising. At Easter Eve 19 years ago, the chef and myself witnessed a quite classic Gong line-up (of Gilli Smyth, Pip Pyle, Didier Malherbe, Mike Howlett and Daevid) along with younger, aspiring and Gong-inspired bands at the time Ozric Tentacles and Porcupine Tree soon before Luna Kafé was established. In this respect, Gong should've been a house band here at our kafé. We didn't manage to review any of the three Gong albums released in the present millennium, which surely is a shame. 2032 from 2009 saw the reunion with ace guitarist Steve Hillage. It was sort of the continuation and fourth album of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy from the heydays of the 1970s. I See You released as late as in November last year is even more of a goodie, classic and sparkling and up to date Gong at the same time, but with a complete new line-up apart from Daevid, including his and Gilli Smyth's son Orlando Allen on drums and Kavus Torabi of Guapo fame on guitar. Because of his illness Daevid couldn't participate on the planned tour to promote the album, though he continued to perform at small venues at home in Australia. The last time on 1 March, only 12 days before he passed away.

I put on Daevid's second solo album Good Morning (1976) soon after I heard the news. It was recorded on four tracks at Daevid's home studio in Deya, Majorca and shows a very reflective and relaxed Daevid Allen along with the Spanish band Euterpe. Despite the probable primitive recording it sounds excellent and with great songs throughout. This and probably a couple of hundred other albums Daevid was involved in and too many live appearances to count certainly indicate that the old beatnik, hippie, psychedelist, freak, punk, good-humoured eccentric etc. etc. contributed to the happiness in the lives of lots of other fellow humans!

Children of the New World, from Good Morning

Tell me what's it all about
What is this funny old world that
We can't do without
Tell me why we argue like we do.
We rob & rape & kill & still don't understand
We only rob ourselves
& then we wonder why we suffer like we do
soon we'll remember
& understand
THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD
& THE DIFFERENT GAMES THEY PLAY
cos we made love all the night time
turned out to be the right time

As the old world fades away
Lets start today!